Did You Say Kinsey?
by Evelyn-Sunshine
Summary: Who is Sam's friend on the inside at the Pentagon? Is she really trustworthy?
1. Jack, Meet Tessa

`  
  
Jack looked slowly around the room. Teal'c and Gen. Hammond were sitting, chatting with pretty brunette in a uniform. "General... I thought the meeting wasn't supposed to be here until later this afternoon. Why the sudden need to meet?"  
  
"Col. Jack O'Neill," the woman said, rising to her feet and saluting him. "Your reputation precedes you."  
  
He gave a thin smile. "Is that entirely a good thing?"  
  
Gen. Hammond motioned towards the young woman. "Colonel, this is Maj. Tessa Kinsey from the Pentagon. I wanted her to meet SG-1 before everyone was put in a sour mood because of Kinsey and his agenda."  
  
A thin smile spread over her face as they both sat down. "Oh, you're too kind, General," she said quietly.  
  
Jack raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Maj. *Kinsey*? Not as in Senator Kinsey whom I despise? This is surely an unhappy coincidence?"  
  
"Careful there, Colonel," she warned. "Not all children take after their fathers."  
  
"Tess?" Sam asked as she walked into the debriefing room. Tessa jumped up from her chair and ran over to hug her. "Oh, my god– what are you doing here? How are the boys?"  
  
She shrugged, very pleased. "Brilliant. Nothing like their father. And you, *Major*– working on the Stargate and going places–both literal and figurative– I'm jealous."  
  
"So, you heard about that little promotion, did you?"  
  
Tessa wiped a fake tear out of her eye. "My little girl is all grown up now," she teased. "Just means I'll have to work harder to out-rank you again."  
  
"Why do get such sick pleasure in out-ranking me?" Sam looked up at Gen. Hammond. "Daniel got cornered by some of the other scientists, they wouldn't let him get away," she explained.  
  
The General nodded. "That's fine, he's aquatinted with Maj. Kinsey anyway."  
  
"Excuse me, General," Jack cut in. "But why do we need to be acquainted with Maj. Kinsey before later today? If she's transferring here-"  
  
"You're transferring here?" Sam asked in shock. "You didn't tell me that."  
  
"I'm not transferring here," Tessa responded quickly.  
  
"Colonel, I wanted you to meet Maj. Kinsey before the meeting today so you wouldn't treat her with any unnecessary hostility," Gen. Hammond informed him. Jack gave everyone in the room a quizzical look.  
  
"I work with the NID," Tessa finally said."But I came here to let you know that I've been doing everything I possibly can to keep the SGC in Gen. Ham-"  
  
"You expect me to believe that?" Jack interrupted. "Everyone at the NID has their own agenda, what makes you so special that you're above it?"  
  
"I'm not above it!" she snapped back. "But I, at least, have the best interest of the planet in mind. And in that, Maj. Carter tells me that we are very much in concurrence."  
  
"How am I supposed to believe that?"  
  
"If I hadn't been pregnant, I'd have been assigned to SG-1!" she snapped. "Sir," she added with a snarl.  
  
Jack raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Oh, really?" he demanded skeptically. He glanced at Gen. Hammond and Sam who both nodded to the correctness of the statement. "Oh, really?" he said with a very different tone. "Well, I'm sure we've all grown and changed in the past four years-"  
  
"Colonel, with all due respect, shut up," she snapped. Jack looked shocked. "I honestly don't give a damn if you really believe me. Think of me like the Tok'ra if it helps, because whether you like it or not, I am the person you will be turning too when you have a colossal problem– speaking only of internal politics, of course. Just know that whatever you know to be true about Senator Kinsey's personality, I am the exact oposite from him, in every fucking way," she told him, bitterness clearly distinguishable in her tone.  
  
"I'm sure you are," he commented dryly.  
  
She raised an eyebrow. "As a matter of fact, Col. O'Neill, the Senator's bestowed upon you the lowest insult he knows."  
  
"And what would that be?" he asked slowly.  
  
She smirked. "He said that you're as beligerant, pig-headed, and childish... as *I* am." Teal'c raised an eyebrow and Sam tried desperately not to laugh at the comment. "I work with the NID because the Senator hates me. Anything I can do to make him mad is well worth any trouble I have to go to to get it done."  
  
"Then, there is no better way then to ally yourself with SG-1," Teal'c replied.  
  
Jack thought for a moment before he responded. "Very well. General, if that's all, I have some paperwork that needs doing," he said standing. Gen. Hammond nodded his consent.  
  
After he was well away from the room, Tessa looked around the table. "I think that went very well," she said lightly. Sam gave her an odd look. "Hey, you didn't grow up with Robert Kinsey for a father. Trust me, that went well."  
  
Gen. Hammond shrugged. "If you say so, Major. Now, I must prepare for the meeting this afternoon. Maj. Carter, if you'd like to show Maj. Kinsey around the base?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes, sir."  
  
~~~~~  
  
Tessa and Sam walked down the corridor towards Sam's lab. "...so they're both in pre-school now, and I know it's barely any different from day-care, but..." Tessa's breath caught in her chest. "I need more!"  
  
Sam laughed, listening as she looked over some test results that had been shoved into her hands on her way through the base. "You still want more kids? Tessa, you'll go through this with other kids too."  
  
She shrugged. "I know that, Major Stargate-Expert-Smartypants. My point is, if I have more kids, it'll be another five years or so before I have to put them into school, so I can have more time with my babies. Speaking of.." Tessa grabbed onto Sam's arm. "Sam, if you don't introduce me, I willl never forgive you," she said, her gaze glued onto a scientist at the other end of the hall.  
  
"To who?" she asked absent-mindedly.  
  
"Who? Only that lovely specimen over there," she said, forcing her to look up from her work.  
  
Sam looked up in time to see the man run into an SF and drop all of his files. "What are you talking about?" she laughed. "That's Daniel!"  
  
"That's Daniel?" she hissed. "Oh, he cut his hair," she pouted momentarily. She tilted her head to the side as he bent over to pick up the files he'd dropped. "Oh yeah. There's my good doctor. Archaeology is really an under-rated field of study. Indiana Jones tested it, Daniel Jackson proves it."  
  
"Tess, I thought you were seeing someone," Sam chastised.  
  
Tessa waved the fact away. "It's not going to work out, his adolescent wet dream is to be appointed to the Cabinet. My god, is that really Daniel?"  
  
"Yeah, and don't do anything stupid," Sam warned. "His wife just died."  
  
She gave Sam a shocked look. "Why, Samantha Carter! I am nothing but tactful and respectful of other people's feelings. Unless it suits my purpose to manipulate them."  
  
Sam laughed. "You don't mean that! That's you pretending to be evil like the Senator. You're a push-over, bleeding-heart, girley little girl who, deep down inside, wants to go make him feel all better."  
  
"Well," Tessa replied with a wicked smile, "I deffinately want to make him feel all better. Not necessarily just emotionally, either." Sam smacked her in the arm but dissolved into giggles anyway.  
  
~~~~  
  
Daniel just kept himself from spilling his coffee all over his desk. "Tess... what are you doing here?"  
  
She shrugged, smiling evasively. "Work. Visiting old friends. Finding my sweet Dr. Jackson corrupted by the Air Force and Jack O'Neill."  
  
"Do you know Jack?" he asked, slightly surprised.  
  
"Not until just today, though by reputation for a long time now. I know Sam back from her Pentagon days. She told me how to find your office."  
  
He chuckled slightly. "I'd forgotten you worked there."  
  
"Still do, most of the time, but I'm tyring to get transferred. Right now I'm on loan to another department."  
  
"What department?"  
  
"One you've heard of."   
  
Tessa lingered momentarily in the doorway before stepping into his office. Daniel quickly cleared his throat. "So, how's that boyfriend of yours? I don't see a ring, are you going the path of entirely military or just entirely unconventional?"  
  
A look momentarily flashed across her face. "He's getting married as soon as he's officially my ex-husband. I could kill the bastard but then I couldn't force at least *some* custody on him."  
  
"You have kids?"  
  
"Why is everyone so surprised by that?" she teased. "Yes, I have kids. Two, Patrick and Wesley, and they're brilliant. They take after me, so it's no wonder." She rolled her eyes, clearly bitter. "Their father is going into *politics*."  
  
Daniel nodded. "That explains the look, then. Your father's not very popular around here."  
  
"I heard. It made my day, honestly. I'd like to join the Colonel's little club if I may, but he doesn't like me very much at the moment." She quickly cleared her throat. "How's that Brit of yours? Sarah?"  
  
He scratched his head. "Yeah, well... we...."  
  
She chuckled. "I'm teasing. I know what happened. I heard about your wife too. That was the real shocker. I knew you'd cock up things with Sarah, but married? Much too spontaneous for the Daniel Jackson I knew."  
  
"How'd... how do you...?"  
  
"I was on the same research team as Sam way back when," she laughed, something about the way all of her teeth were exposed was entirely too attractive to Daniel. "She keeps me up to date on things." She nodded at the look on his face. "You're wondering how I know things that are nice and classified."  
  
He nodded. "Yes, actually. I mean, Catherine didn't even know-"  
  
"I still work on the Stargate program," she cut in. "In a much more bureaucratic way, though. I'm sort of... with the NID. As a consultant on military protocol and resident Stargate expert," she said quickly at the defensive pose Daniel took. "The NID needed a military consultant to help then through the delicate and ordered military world that is very different from their weird little barely-structured civilian world. I was *stuck* with this post when I was barred from joining the SGC on account of Patrick."  
  
Daniel nodded slowly before noting a particular phrase Tessa had used. "Stargate expert?" he repeated. "Did you just give yourself that title or do most people know so little about it that anyone can claim it?"  
  
Her mouth dropped open. "I resent your insinuation! Sam may be *the* Stargate expert of the world, but she didn't do anything with at least some help from me." She crossed her arms in an indignant pose. "And it was *my* idea for Catherine to ask you to translate the cartouch. Sam suggested someone else because she didn't like your hair."  
  
He smiled. "I knew you had an ulterior motive to sit through not one but two of my lectures when my colleagues were walking out on me." They stood in silence for a moment before Daniel nervously cleared his throat. "So, are you here for the meeting?"  
  
She nodded, an unhappy look passing over her face. "Yeah, I am. And I should go up top to meet the Sentor. He'll be less than pleased if I don't." She rolled her eyes. "Hell, he'll just be pissed to see me at all."  
  
He nodded quickly. "Yeah, Senator Kinsey is quite easy to enrage around here." He smiled as she backed towards the door. "It's good to see you again, Major."  
  
She smiled in return. "You too, Dr. Jackson. If you don't hate me too much after the meeting, give me a call." She disappeared down the hall before Daniel could respond. He shook his head, smiling at the encounter. Tessa never failed to surprise him; he figured it was about time he returned the favour.  
  
Fin 


	2. Tessa, Meet Daniel

Six Years Earlier  
  
Daniel was sitting alone in a coffee shop after a particularly bad series of lectures. He tried to erase the sting of having everyone in the hall walk out on him with seven cups of hot, forgiving coffee.  
  
"Dr. Jackson?" a voice cut into his self-pity. He looked up to find a stunning young woman walking over to him. "Dr. Jackson? I'm Tessa Kinsey. I was at your lecture this afternoon."  
  
"And you're not avoiding me?" he said lightly. "Are you sure you want to be seen with me?"  
  
"Quite sure," she laughed. "I though your ideas were intriguing. I wanted to get to know the man behind them... unless of course you're meeting someone. Should I go?" she said quickly.  
  
He shook his head. "Oh, no. Please, sit down. I don't usually have anyone not dressed in Star Wars costumes finding my theories interesting." He watched her as she sat down across from him. "I'm sorry, this is going to sound bizarre, but you wouldn't happen to be related to Senator Kinsey, would you?" he asked slowly. "It's just that you sort of resemble him," he said when she gave him an odd look. "I didn't-"  
  
"No, he's my father," she said, laughing slightly. "I just usually try to avoid being associated with him. We don't get along very well," she said without any sadness.  
  
Daniel gave her an almost sorry look. "Really? Why not?"  
  
She shrugged. "Conflicting views on the world I guess. It really came out when I decided to join the Air Force."  
  
"You're in the Air Force?" he asked, quite surprised.  
  
She smiled, used to the reaction. "Yeah. I'm working on my doctorate right now."  
  
"In what?"  
  
"Astrophysics." She laughed at the shocked look on his face. "Yeah, most people look just like that when they find out." She shook it off. "Anyway, when I was eighteen, I joined up and the Senator went ballistic. He and I got into this huge fight about my future, and he actually said, 'But you're so pretty, and I can pay for you to go to any college you want to go to. You don't need the military to pay for it.'" She rolled her eyes in anger. "I swear, the man has no idea a women's movement ever occurred."  
  
Daniel shrugged. "I'm sure he just had wanted you to have a good life."  
  
She shook her head vehemently. "He doesn't really give a damn about me. I honestly think I'm the person he hates most in the world. He just doesn't care for the military. He doesn't like anything that's tight lipped and classified seven ways to next Sunday." A smile spread across her lips. "But enough about the Senator and our nonexistent relationship. How long have you been in Chicago?" Tessa asked.  
  
He shrugged. "A long time. Most of my life, actually. You?"  
  
"Just a few days. I'm here for a series of lectures on Ancient Egypt."  
  
He gave her an odd look. "Really? What do astrophysics and ancient history have to do with each other?"  
  
She laughed. "That's classified," she teased. "Actually I find history very interesting. Your theories in particular."  
  
He raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Really? My theories? Surely you're not talking about the same theories that my colleagues have dismissed with laughter and snide comments?"  
  
She laughed again. "I'm not one of your colleagues, Dr. Jackson. I am an astrophysicist, and I fully believe in the possibilities of anything and everything."  
  
"I thought scientists were supposed to be strictly inside the box thinkers," he said with a teasing smile.  
  
Tessa shrugged. "I'm not your average scientist. My mind is open to many outside of the box theories."  
  
He smiled. "Perhaps you'd like to discuss some theories over dinner?" he suggested.  
  
She returned the smile. "Indeed I would."  
  
~~~~~  
  
"So, Tess, what do you think?"  
  
Tessa smiled as she fell into one of the chairs around the table filled with papers and books. "Hello to you, too, Catherine. I think you'd do well to ask Jackson to join this project. He's just crazy-brilliant enough to solve the riddle of the Gate to Heaven."  
  
A woman with short blonde hair shook her head. "His theories may be dead on, but how do we know he'll be able to translate it?" she demanded.  
  
Tessa groaned. "Sam! Why must you be so dismissive? Jackson's just as accredited as any other person. And he's been labelled a crackpot, so if he tries to go public, no one would believe him."  
  
Sam gave Tessa a look. "All I mean is, he's young. He might not have enough experience to solve this thing. All the experts we've brought in this far haven't and they were-"  
  
"They were morons!" she protested. "Even Catherine's said so. I honestly think Daniel could crack this mother."  
  
Catherine and Sam exchanged a look. "You called him Daniel," Catherine said knowingly.  
  
Tessa shrugged. "So what?"  
  
"You spent an extra three days in Chicago," Sam wheedled. "I think you have a crush on the good Doctor. And don't you have a boyfriend?"  
  
Her chin dropped indignantly. "Our relationship is very casual and I do not have a crush on him! I just have a feeling about him!"  
  
"Sure," Sam said with a wicked smile. "A feeling."  
  
She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine! We'll go with your guy again!" she conceded unhappily. "But if your guys don't figure this out in a reasonable time span, we're going to Jackson!"  
  
Catherine laughed. "Alright, alright, girls! They're just linguists. This isn't a competition."  
  
"Like hell it isn't!" they both said at once before dissolving into laughter.  
  
********  
  
Author's Note: I hadn't intended on writing a second part, but here it is. Just a little more on the friendship between Tessa and Sam, the flirting between Tessa and Daniel, and the bad feelings between Tessa and the Sentor. 


End file.
